Those interested in the history of automotive technology should read—and will enjoy—this book.
— Zachary M. Schrag
Mom provides a clear argument that demands consideration from historians of technology as well as policymakers.
— Staffan Hulten
— Sandro Mendonca
— Rudi Volti
— Michael Brian Schiffer
— David E. Nye
— David K. Nergaard
An impressive work that couples theoretical sophistication with extensive use of American, Dutch, English, French, and German sources... Surely deserves a place on the bookshelf of automotive historians and anyone interested in why we get the technologies that we do.
Mom has mined the archives of several countries, uncovering manuscript and published sources in four languages, to produce a model comparative history. His main focus is the United States and Germany, but he follows electric vehicles to Britain, France, and the Netherlands, with side trips to other European countries. The result is a stunning compilation of examples and figures, ranging from Chicago to Berlin and from race cars to milk trucks.
A stunning triumph of creative and sophisticated scholarship... Mom's prescription—that technological change be studied holistically—is a potent antidote to the poisonous extremes of technological, economic, and sociocultural determinism.
An impressive empirical study.
The research is exhaustive... He shows how competition between the electric and the gasoline car involved much more than the vehicles themselves, and he helps us understand the electric vehicle as the center of an alternative system. This has future implications... The electric car's 'failure' was not technical but cultural.
This book is more than just a single case study where present-day technology was around 100 years ago. This book reveals how History is full of possibilities. The challenge is not to learn the lessen too late.
An interesting study of road based transportation in the early years, with a good deal of insight into the electric car market through most of the century.
| Preface | ||
| Prologue: Substituting for the Horse, Choosing Propulsion | 1 | |
| The First Generation (1881-1902) | ||
| 1 | Separate Spheres: Culture and Technology of the Early Car | 17 |
| 2 | Failed Experiments: The First-Generation Electric Taxicab | 64 |
| The Second Generation (1902-1925) | ||
| 3 | Horse Power: The City Car, the Touring Car, and the Crisis of 1907 | 101 |
| 4 | The Trojan Horse: The Competition for the Taxicab Market | 131 |
| 5 | The Electrified Horse: The Commercial Vehicle in Europe | 174 |
| The Third Generation and Beyond | ||
| 6 | The Serious Side of Mobility: The Electric Truck in the United States | 205 |
| 7 | Off the Road and Back: Utilitarian Niches or New Universalism? | 250 |
| Epilogue: Alternative Technologies and the History of Tomorrow's Car | 275 | |
| A Note on Method | 303 | |
| Abbreviations | 313 | |
| Notes | 315 | |
| Bibliography and Resources | 371 | |
| Index | 413 |
Overview